Maple Syrup and Birthday Cupcakes

This past weekend a good friend from high school was visiting Boston. K had a conference here last week and stayed to hang out this weekend. On top of hanging out with friends, Butler made it to the Final Four! K went to Butler and is the president of his local alumni club!


On Saturday we decided to partake in some local fun by heading up to New Hampshire to go to a maple house where they boil maple syrup. We had beautiful weather on Saturday. It was a bit chilly but sunny and not a cloud in the sky. After arriving at the Grant Family Maple House, we had some food and got in line to learn all about how maple syrup is made.


What we learned is that the sap from the trees has about 2-3% sugar in it straight from the tree. At that percentage, it would take 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of maple syrup!! So they first condense the sap until it reaches about 8% sugar. The sap is then boiled to evaporate off the water.


Once the temperature reads 7 degrees above the boiling point of water, you have syrup! The guy in the maple house even explained how they use a baraometer on the wall to get the barometric pressure so they know the exact boiling temperature of water for that given day. It was all very scientific and extremely interesting.


The small bottles of maple syrup were a sample from each batch they had made at the maple house this season. The guy explained that as the season goes on, the syrup tends to get darker due to the change in the amount of sugar in the sap.


Of course, we had to get some maple products while we were there. Obviously, maple syrup. We also got some maple candies, some maple sugar, and some maple pepper. Can’t wait to find creative ways to use the sugar and pepper. If anyone has suggestions, please let me know!


Also, since K’s birthday was last week, I made him some cupcakes to celebrate. I went with my go-to chocolate cupcake recipe. I love that you can whip these up by dirtying only one bowl and using a whisk! I dipped them in some ganache and topped with festive sprinkles. Aren’t they pretty?

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17 Responses to “M&M Surprise Cookies”

  1. #
    1
    stephchows — December 4, 2009 at 2:01 pm

    WOW total sugar coma! I love that it’s a PB cookie with a whole PB cup put into it!! Such a fun idea 🙂

  2. #
    2
    birdutmasali — December 4, 2009 at 3:32 pm

    and peanut butter
    and chocolate
    and aMrshmallows
    süpppppeer 🙂

  3. #
    3
    Jelli Bean — December 4, 2009 at 3:38 pm

    Considering it’s not even 10am and I’ve just polished off my 4th cheesecake brownie, I’d better stay as far away from these cookies as possible. They look phenomenal.

  4. #
    4
    Ingrid — December 4, 2009 at 7:01 pm

    Looks good. I bet they’d be super festive looking with the holiday m&ms.

    Happy Friday!
    ~ingrid

  5. #
    5
    nutmegnanny — December 5, 2009 at 1:26 am

    These look sugary and delicious 🙂 I tend to find mini M&M’s either in the check out lane or at Christmas I find them over where they have little stocking stuffer candy.

  6. #
    6
    Molly Jean — December 5, 2009 at 2:49 am

    I have the sugar shakes just thinking about these 🙂 They are waaaay too cute!

  7. #
    7
    Julie — December 5, 2009 at 4:16 pm

    I’d love that sugar party in my mouth…wow!

  8. #
    8
    oneordinaryday — December 8, 2009 at 1:53 pm

    My kiddos would be all over this. All that candy PLUS a cookie?! They’d love it! LOL

  9. #
    9
    oneordinaryday — December 8, 2009 at 1:54 pm

    Oh – the mini m&ms? I can usu. only find them in the check-out aisles in the small tubes. I haven’t seen them in bags in a long time.

  10. #
    10
    Jen — December 8, 2009 at 2:36 pm

    I’ll have to look up by the checkout next time I need mini M&Ms. I was definitely looking for a bag…

  11. #
    11
    Amy — December 8, 2009 at 10:12 pm

    OMG your pictures are TDF

  12. #
    12
    Lisa — December 8, 2009 at 11:33 pm

    The only place I can find M&M minis now is in the bulk candy aisle. I haven’t seen them in any sort of packaging in ages.

  13. #
    13
    bridget {bake at 350} — January 3, 2010 at 1:03 am

    “super sugar overload cookies” sound good to me! 🙂 Thanks for linking!

  14. #
    14
    Diane {createdbydiane.blogspot.com} — January 3, 2010 at 3:40 am

    Very Clever!

  15. #
    15
    Katie — January 7, 2010 at 5:04 pm

    Wow those look great, I’ll have to try them. I love your photography!

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